Policy Governance - Susan Rogers on Board Leadership
Originally published in
Association: Canada's First Association Management Magazine
February-March 2002
The Crisis in Board Leadership
The Canadian Forum on Volunteerism was held in Vancouver in August…. a highlight of the "International Year of Volunteers 2001". Yet the news was sobering indeed.
The conference opened with the newly released results of our "2000 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating" (NSGVP) that provides a snapshot of voluntary and civic action in Canada. Compared with the 1997 NSGVP, the results of the 2000 survey presented a picture of increasing national financial contributions on the part of Canadians but a marked decline in the number who devote discretionary time to volunteer activities.
While more than one in four (27%) Canadians aged 15 and older volunteered their time, this was a decrease of more than one million individuals since 1997. As one in four of these volunteers served on a board or committee in both survey years, 250,000 fewer Canadians participated in this leadership activity in 2000. One of the greatest declines in volunteer participation was among those with a university degree (from 48% to 39%). And remarkably, only seven percent of Canadians gave 73% of all volunteer hours.
Why is this a crisis in leadership?
In these same three years the number of charities registered with Revenue Canada increased by over 2000 to approximately 77,000 (and it is estimated that non-registered charities increased by a similar ratio, from 100,000 to 103,000). These numbers translate into more than 5000 new boards of directors searching for exceptional leadership volunteers in a marketplace of rapidly declining availability and willingness of leadership talent.
Remember, every voluntary sector board is accountable for ensuring their organization improves the quality of life for some segment of the Canadian population. This responsibility cannot be delegated. Without high calibre leadership volunteers at the top, the capacity and effectiveness of voluntary organizations to serve their communities will suffer.
And while these statistics shed light on why boards are experiencing recruitment and retention challenges, they also forewarn association executives (and funders) of the need to adopt new paradigms for voluntary sector governance.
What to do?
Recognize that the marketplace has changed. Your organization is one of approximately 180,000 trying to attract the best and brightest leadership volunteers when an increasing number of Canadians are deciding not to volunteer or to volunteer less time. How can your organization gain and keep a competitive advantage in this kind of market? What will draw leadership volunteers to your organization and inspire them to governance excellence when the very notion of 'team leadership' is not only challenging, but also a potentially flawed concept. (Imagine a team of Prime Ministers leading our country, trying to speak with one voice!)
1) Create and promote a "culture of respect"
Whatever draws high calibre staff to your organization will be what draws high calibre volunteers. People are not attracted to meetings, they are attracted to meaningful work in a collegial and trustworthy environment. Many boards have reputations as clique-ish, capricious and confrontational or, worse yet, ineffectual. These boards will neither attract nor retain the conceptual thinkers, teamplayers or visionary leaders.
2) Resist the temptation to use a "band-aid" approach
Quick fixes will not help a board that shows symptoms of a deeper malaise. Developing an orientation manual will not help a board work as a team. Changing the agenda format will not appease the renegade board member. Unhealthy governance needs to be accorded the same attention as unhealthy operations; the root causes have to be ferreted out and addressed in a strategic, thoughtful and deliberate manner.
3) Reconnect with your purpose
Revisit the original inspiration that gave birth to your organization. What difference was it supposed to make? A safe "after school" community for children? A celebration of diverse cultures? Respite from isolation for seniors? Then evaluate your organization's success in accomplishing these outcomes. Avoid the easy measure of "how many children have used the Helpline?" and ask instead "how much safer do children feel after school as a result of your organization's existence?"
Assuring the organization produces the right outcomes is the purpose of a board of directors. This requires boards to look outside themselves rather than inward, to continually connect with the broader community they serve. This orientation to "purpose" creates productive governance teams.
4) Clarify the rules of governance and write them down
What are the rules the board of directors is going to play by? What are the jobs of each of the players? What does "winning" look like? What's the relationship between the coach and the general manager? What happens if the players on this governance team don't show up or don't follow the governance rules?
Boards have spent endless hours discussing and documenting the rules for staff while showing little interest in disciplining themselves. Too many boards have done themselves and their organizations enormous damage by allowing, thereby condoning, their own unpredictable and irresponsible behaviour. This lack of leadership does not attract high calibre volunteers or staff.
This is where Dr. John Carver's Policy Governance® system of board governance, to date the only comprehensive and integrated board governance model in the world, demonstrates its tremendous worth. The policy framework of boards using this system establishes the rules of the board game. Providing the board team plays by the rules an environment of trust, innovation and inspiration can flourish.
5) Recruit based on leadership criteria
Perhaps because the board's real job is not an easy one to measure, many boards default to becoming mired in the minutiae of budgets and strategic plans of the CEO, thinking that real control over outcomes can somehow be found in approving financial reports. Consequently boards are practiced at recruiting volunteers into their ranks by virtue of regional representation, legal or accounting skills, age or gender. Once again, Policy Governance® boards have a competitive edge because they are focussed on outcomes and recruit based on leadership criteria such as ability to grasp the big picture and create alternate futures, moral courage, and the willingness to allow others to lead.
6) Set high expectations
The job of governance is a real job. Board leadership requires 100% attendance; anything less demeans the importance of the job. Change your bylaws; make it clear from the beginning that if a director misses more than one meeting in a year, they are no longer on the board. There need be no call from the chair or phone calls of regret… attendance is a non-negotiable performance criterion. The same applies to board members' violation of any of their governance policies; every member is responsible for self-discipline. Would you expect anything less of your CEO?
7) Build quality into small packages
The optimum size of highly functioning teams is usually 6 to 8. When you recruit for the right skill sets and attributes for the board's real job and write down the rules of the game, six or seven people are all you need to accomplish the work. Invest resources in teambuilding, coaching and governance development for the board. These investments will draw inspired and committed leadership to your governance team.
8) Play fair
Once the governance rules are written down, play by them, regardless. Evaluate your own conduct and performance, and that of your CEO, only against pre-set criteria. Become known in your community for trust and innovation, fair play and fun, the right results and respect for staff, both paid and unpaid. If you permit personal agendas, power and petty politics, you will perpetuate dysfunctional behaviour and lose good people. A board's poor reputation will haunt the organization for years and damage its drawing power for the best and the brightest leadership volunteers.
9) Celebrate Successes
Develop an annual governance plan for the job of governance, not a strategic plan for operations, and draw your meeting agendas from this plan. Benchmark the board's progress against this governance plan and reward yourselves for "making that difference" in the community you serve. Have a potluck dinner, give out gold "governance" stars and honor individual and team contributions publicly.
10) Think big and globally
Become an advocate and partner for governance excellence. Encourage your local Volunteer Centre, community college or university to provide governance training and degree programs. Launch a provincial award for governance volunteers to be recognized during April's Volunteer Week. And when the Chamber of Charities concept (similar to the Chamber of Commerce network) arrives in your neighborhood, join the movement.
With your support, a future is coming where governance volunteers are invited to consult with the Minister of Charities, where donors and funders demand your board's governance rating, where a "Governance Excellence" certification is available, and where leadership volunteers compete to join your board.
We have the capacity to make a different world!
posted by T at 10:30 am
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